donderdag 23 augustus 2012

Tom Swifties are
most often considered pun related. For example: "I only have diamonds,
clubs and spades," said Tom heartlessly. The term derives from the style of writing used in the Tom Swift series of books written by a
group of authors collectively known as Victor Appleton. More recently, the term
has been used to describe hackneyed writing—thus the term hack writer. New writers sometimes use this type of writing because
they feel it spices up their work. It doesn't. Some examples (created by me
because I'm too lazy to look at an actual copy of a Tom Swift book) are shown below:

“ I've told you once before, and I won’t say it again,” Tom repeated redundantly.

“Do
you think I can fly to the top of that tree,” Tom queried sardonically.

The point I'm trying to
make here is that the use of said as
a dialogue tag is almost always the right choice.

Examples of things to
avoid:

“Give
it me,” she demanded.

“Here it is,” he proffered.

Or
even worse:

“I
hate to admit that,” he giggled. (It’s impossible to giggle
while speaking.)

“I’ve
had it,” she retorted angrily.

"How
dare you," she hissed. (Try doing that some time.)

These tags are used to
explain the character’s emotions. Instead of elaborate and clichéd tags,
writers should use beats (a bit of physical action or stage business). This is
the show, don’t tell rule of fiction
writing.

Ex: “I’ve had it,” she responded angrily. This
should be “I’ve had it,” she said. Her hand slapped the table so hard the empty
whiskey glasses danced.

Ex: “I hate to admit that,” he giggled. This
should be “I hate to admit that,” he
said. He giggled like a school girl.

And finally, the name
or pronoun should always come first in a tag.

Ex: “I am leaving,” said Bill. This should
be “I'm leaving,” Bill said. Putting
‘Bill’ last, is the same thing as saying “I'm leaving,” said he. Unless you are Gilbert and/or Sullivan, this just
doesn’t sound right.

maandag 20 augustus 2012

Lately my best selling work has been a Noah Milano short story, The Honey Trap. It surprised me at first because I'd heard in the past they don't sell, so you should make novels available on Kindle.
I've always been sure shorter works are best-suited for the Kindle-generation. Fast and furious stories of action and mystery... Those are my strenghts anyway. I've often received the comment my work is great for reading during commutes to work. I decided to bring out several novelettes and I've got a novella coming up.
But the success of The Honey Trap made me put out a new short story: No Dead Body In Sight. It's a ''high-concept'' PI mystery featuring my usual protagonist Noah Milano. Here's the description:

An aging movie star is sure she discovered a dead body on the beach. When the police arrives there's no deady body in sight. She hires Noah Milano, son of a mobster and security specialist to prove she's not crazy. Trying to uncover this mystery Noah soon finds himself in grave danger...

zondag 19 augustus 2012

It
happens to the best of us, regardless of how creative, crazy or fucked
up we might be. There comes a time when we are out of twists and turns
to carry our novels forward. When these things occur, I turn to real
life for inspiration. Sometimes there’s nothing like witnessing an
unlikely event to spark an entire train of thought and, thus, a bunch of
new chapters towards completing yet another novel. Here are five places
where I find inspiration for my stories.

1 – The local Diner.

A
lot of people, I guess, would rather go to a bar or a pub, but the
truth is that music in bars is often too loud to make out what is really
going on around you. As for pubs, well I don’t drink, so I would be
that weird dude who orders pomegranate-perrier all night. I don’t know!
So I turn to the local diner, especially on the lunch hour and in
working class neighbourhoods. It is where I find the most true-to-life
inspiration for dialogues. And you never know what you’ll stumble upon:
disgruntled delivery men, factory workers who complain about everything
and anything, and that rare occurrence when you manage to strike a
conversation with the waitress or the cook and he/she reveals to you all
the secrets of the neighbourhood.

2 – Public transportation.

It’s
not that I don’t like my car, but my daily commute is much better
served by the local public transportation that by the ugly, ugly grid
lock here in Montreal. It has its disadvantages, like being crammed into
a tin box with (at least) 85 other people, sweating onto one another
(yet even that sparked a poem in me titled “The Old Foe and the
Cadillac”). It also has its advantages when it comes to finding new
characters. Because let’s be honest. If you are stuck in your car, in
traffic, the only things you’ll have to inspire yourself is your hatred
for traffic, the hatred of people around you, and the god damned radio. I
don’t think that’s hardly any good material for stories or novels. Not
for me anyways. I’m not saying I find inspiration every single day in
the bus, but there are these moments when you stumble upon an
interesting person, a good (or horrible) conversation and so on. In the
end it’s about creating opportunities to meet such characters. It’s all
about rubbing shoulders with the world more often.

3 – The Red Light District.

The
Montreal red light has been dying for the last eight years or so and
since I’ve been hanging, studying or working in the heart of that
neighbourhood for something like twelve or thirteen years, I’ve seen
what it used to be like. I see the changes, and although I have to admit
that most of it is positive for the city, it will take away a great
source of inspiration for my stories. Since crime is at an all time low
in the city, the remaining streets of the Red Light are this rare place
where you can stumble upon odd situations, strange characters, drug
trade, drunken students and the occasional brawl. Even though I’m way to
fuckin’ old to take part in any of it anymore (and I never really took
drugs anyways) I still enjoy standing in the distance and watching life
unfold before me.

4 – Google Street View

I
used to think it was a lot like cheating, but it saves me a lot of
fucking time when I am doing my research. I know Montreal very, very
well, but every once in a while, I need to find that spot at that place
or that building somewhere in the south-west (for example). And since
I’ve lived in the east for a decade now, I don’t remember exactly where
everything is. Instead of hopping on a train and walking around the
neighbourhood for hours (which I don’t have anymore), I will look it up
on Google street view. Now don’t go thinking I don’t do the research.
What I love about writing is going to places, getting the feel of it,
the smell, the sounds and all. But for the very rare occasions in a
month where I can actually have a few hours just to wander around, I
need to know exactly where I am going for it to be worth my time.

5 – The newspapers

I
take half an hour every morning to do a press review. I have a
selection of newspapers that I have come to enjoy over the years and
they range from liberal to conservative in scope. I don’t read every
article in every paper (granted, my favourite part still are the
political cartoons) but I do get a good picture of what’s going on in
the city, the province and the world. It is a great, great place to keep
up with current affairs, crime sprees, political schemes and anything
else, good or bad, that might make its way into a novel.

That’s pretty much it for now,

Thanks for reading,

Ian Truman

About me : My
name is Ian and I’m a hardcore kid turned writer. I have been straight
edge and vegetarian for at least a decade now and I hope to bring the
passion, verve and dedication of hardcore into the art form of the
novel. You can find me in Montreal, Quebec, with my wife Mary and
daughter Kaori.

vrijdag 17 augustus 2012

Writing
a novel was probably one of the hardest things you've ever done, maybe the
hardest thing you'll ever do. Lots of people write, few ever complete a novel.
Congratulations, you're a writer! But I'm afraid I have a bit of bad news for
you…the rough draft was the easy part. If you're anything like me (and let's
hope you're not), editing and revising your manuscript will undoubtedly take as
much time—or more—than writing the damn thing. In fact, no matter how many
times you look over your book, you will ALWAYS find something that can be made
better. Over the years, I have learned a lot about the editing/revision
process. The first thing I learned is that editing
is correcting the mechanical problems with your work. Revising is making your writing better. Here are some pointers I
hope will help make the process a little easier for you than it was for me.

Point of View (POV)

Point
of view is the perspective from which a story is told. Point of view allows us
to see the story unfold through a particular character's eyes. We are allowed
to see inside a character's mind, to experience his thoughts and feelings. In
fiction, there are generally two types: first person and third person.

In
first person POV, the narrator of the story (usually the protagonist) tells the
story from his or her perspective. The pronouns I and we are used to tell
the story. If the story is written in first person POV, we are only allowed to
experience the thoughts and feelings of that one individual. We are NEVER
allowed to see inside any other character's mind. The protagonist must be in
every scene. Robert B. Parker's Spencer novels
are a great example of first person POV.

In
third person POV, the story is being told by a narrator who may or may not be
part of the story. This narrator relates all the action in the third person,
using third person pronouns such as he or
she. With third person point of view,
the POV can shift from character to character. This gives the writer a lot more
flexibility when writing a story. The reader can now see inside the minds of
multiple characters. The protagonist no longer needs to be in EVERY scene.
However, POV should never shift within the same chapter or chapter section.
Once when I was working with an agent in an attempt to publish one of my
novels, she pointed out that I was shifting POV within the same chapter and
doing so often. I explained (truthfully) that I had switched POV within the
chapter for a specific reason and that Stephen King did it all the time. With practiced
patience she said, "You're not Stephen King." Ouch… Over the years,
the rules for POV have become a bit more fluid and flexible, but if you're not
Stephen King (and so many of us aren't), I would suggest sticking with a single
POV within chapters or chapter sections when writing in the third person.

As
I mentioned above, the rules on POV are changing a little. Many contemporary writers
of suspense are using a mix of first and third person. When the protagonist is
in a scene, the story is told from the first person POV. When the protagonist
is not in a scene, the narrator switches to third person POV. This is a
technique that was never used in the past but is gaining favor. It has the
benefit of using first person POV like the hardboiled detective writers of the
past while still giving the flexibility of third person POV.

Following
is an example of what you MUST avoid:

"It isn't always
going to turn out right," Burke said. "Sometimes things go bad so
fast that you can't make it right." He hated himself for saying it, but
she needed to her the truth.

Kacey looked at him and
smiled. She didn't say a word, but she believed everything he said.

From Burke's third person POV, there is no way we can know how Kacey
felt. How can we possibly know that she believed him? Readers might not catch
it, but I promise a good editor will. I know it sounds petty, but agents and
editors look for stuff like that. There are lots of good books out there about
POV. If you're still confused, buy one of them…or go to www.sdexter.com and
drop me an email with your POV question.

maandag 13 augustus 2012

DEFINING SUCCESS IN YOUR OWN TERMS

To paraphrase a line from my short story “A Relatively
Small Sum of Money”, success is such a
relative term.

When a well-connected New York agency offered to
represent my novel BARONNE STREET, I fantasied about being successful which included
a big advance, a national book tour with clamoring fans, and a cable TV series
mashing up the conventions of film noir and soap opera.

It didn’t quite happen that way. Reality bit down hard when publishers consistently
delivered variations of “The writing is
good, but this guy uses his brains, not guns and fists, to get out of
jams.And where are the bombs?”

After a more than reasonable number of rejections, my
agent politely released me from my contract.It was an amiable split; we occasionally still communicate.

My next step was to independently publish using
CreateSpace and Kindle.In order to avoid
the clichéd hellish descent into depression, I defined success in more modest
terms.I picked a small number of copies
to sell. If I met that number I would consider the novel to be success.

My
modest goal has been exceeded by four-fold.And mostly to people who don't know me.The number is still so small that I am unwilling to brag about it but…

·Two
years after publication the novel consistently sells a respectable (but small)
number of copies each month.

·I
receive emails from strangers who enjoyed the book (another small number).

·A
local TV station interviewed me on their popular morning show. WWL TV Interview

·I
am scheduled to be interviewed on the local NPR station.

·I
have become email pals with the drummer of 80’s rock group Ambrosia, Burleigh
Drummond.I borrowed his cool sounding
name for my protagonist.The real-life
Burleigh Drummond heard about the novel and contacted me.He even invited me to see the band perform. Ambrosia

·On
his web site, actor Lance J. Holt reads an excerpt from my short story “Ash
Wednesday”.I would love for this guy to
play BARONNE STREET crimelord Evan Charbonnet in the film or TV version. Lance J Holt reads from Ash Wednesday

·Speaking
of film or TV version, I pitched a real movie producer in his office and was
politely rejected.

·The typos in BARONNE STREET inspired a reader to become a free-lance
editor/proofreader. She will soon be able to quit her part-time job and
edit full-time from home while caring for her children.MS Editorial Services

·David
Lummis asked me to blurb his second novel: The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans–Part 2: The Last Beaucoeur.

·The
local library purchased three copies. Someone stole a copy, another indication
of success.

·Jochem
invited me to be a regular contributor to this blog.Now, that’s impressive.

I defined success too narrowly both times.As independent and small press writers we should
define our success in terms we can meet.If we meet that level of success hopefully we are closer to the next
level.

Don’t get me wrong I would have preferred the big
advance and all that came with it.But
it’s also nice receiving an email from someone who tells me that my writing has
re-ignited their interest in reading fiction.

zaterdag 4 augustus 2012

Set in 1950, it stars Lucien Caye, the PI from NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL. A desirable woman enamored of an undesirable man defies understanding, yet the human heart rarely listens to the human brain. A smart guy like Lucien should know better, but his mind has trouble controlling his libido, much less his heart. ENAMORED, a case of obsession and murder, a case that will baffle Lucien, intrigue him, make him fall in love – three times.